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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24590854">Writing Home</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spring_Leaf/pseuds/Spring_Leaf'>Spring_Leaf</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dungeons &amp; Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Forgotten Realms</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adventure, Angst, Character Death, DnD typical violence, Dungeons &amp; Dragons Campaign, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Minor Character Death, Resurrection</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:29:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,992</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24590854</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spring_Leaf/pseuds/Spring_Leaf</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of unsent letters written by a young adventurer, Rose, to her father. Join her as she navigates a dangerous world, tries to find friends, a place to belong and come to terms with her own identity, all the while she is hiding a secret that could be her death if discovered by the wrong people.</p><p>Basically me realizing my dnd character would make a great protagonist and wanting to explore her story through letters to her father. Or one could say these are just very fancy campaign notes.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Letters 1-4: The Shipwreck</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Letter #1</b>
</p><p>
  <i>Leander,</i>
</p><p>
  <i>I'm still mad at you. I don't know why I'm even writing to you. I won't be able to send you this letter before we reach harbor again. Yeah, I'm on a ship. I'm getting some distance between you and me. I need to be away from you for a while. How could you lie to me like this? My entire life has been a lie! How could you?! I trusted you. Of course I trusted you. I thought you were my father, but I guess I was wrong. </i>

</p><p>
  <i>Bye,</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Rose</i>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Letter #2</b>
</p><p>
  <i>Leander,<br/>
</i></p><p>
  <i></i>
</p><p>
  <i></i>
</p><p><i>
I've been talking to the other people on the ship. There's the dragonborn I met in the harbor, a family with an annoying child, an uptight elven lady, a strange metal knight and a water genasi. Should any of them stick around I'll tell you their names. For know, what significance do names have? </i>
</p><p>
  <i>The elven lady might be a powerful mage, but then again she's on a boat, so maybe not that powerful. I tried to make her talk about herself and why she's here, but she thinks she's too good for me. The family's kid is stalking the metal knight, which is fairly amusing. At least compared to everything else on this ship. I tired playing cards with some people, but there's only so much of that they are willing to do. Dragonborn is willing to sit and meditate for hours, urgh. How can anyone do that? Genasi and metal knight are friends and while they do talk to me, I'm also clearly not really part of their group yet. I'm working on it, though. We'll be having a big dinner on deck tonight, maybe that will alleviate my boredom a bit.</i>
</p><p>

  <i>Bye,</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Rose</i>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Letter #3</b>
</p><p>
  <i>Dad I'm scared there was a storm the ship hit a reef we're stranded on an island no one knows where it looks like some people have been dragged off the captain is missing a leg he says there's a beacon he can use to call for some people to rescue us but it's missing like it also got dragged off </i>
</p><p>
  <i>I fixed my make up when I woke up on the beach. No one noticed anything. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>Someone will have to go after the people and the beacon. If you were here you would go. But you're not here, I am. I will go.<br/>
If I don't come back and these letters reach you somehow, I love you, Dad, and I forgive you.</i>
</p><p>
 
  <i>Yours, </i>
</p><p>


  <i>Rose</i>
</p><p><b>Letter #4</b><br/>
</p><p>
<i>Leander,</i></p><p>
  <i>you won't believe the shit that went down. I can't believe I survived all this! It was so cool! But so horrible. Yieks! If this is what adventuring is like, I can understand why you loved and hated it and why it was hard to quit. But let me start at the beginning.<br/>
I volunteered to go after the people and the beacon, as did the dragonborn, the genasi and the metal knight. The elven lady, the family with the annoying kid and several sailors were missing. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>We followed the tracks to some ruins, leading into the mountain. By that I mean literally into a cave system in the mountains. But parts of it had been built as well, there were paved floors and doors and other tunnels with poisonous mushrooms that didn't seem to be part of the built structure. Anyway, when we went in, there were some strange frog-like creatures eating the corpses of two sailors. We killed the koa-toa, as they apparently are called. Genasi lady knew that. She casts spells. I think she's a wizard, but a bit of an airhead. Looks like one of those people who learned everything from books and yet knows nothing of life, somehow. The dragonborn uses a sword and shield, as well as some holy magic. Holy magic seems like a good thing in a place like this. And hey, it seems like I'm not repelled by his presence! Nice to know my nature won't be a problem when it comes to the presence of holy people. The metal knight has a sword as well, but his fighting sill is much more raw and uncontrolled. He has been making some very weird comments, like he either never went out before meeting genasi lady or he has amnesia.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>I got splashed by water, so I fixed my make up after the fight real quick. I know my make up is waterproof, but I just wanted to be sure. There were two paths away from the first chamber. We took the one with the poisonous mushrooms growing on the floor. I pretended to be as affected by the spores as the others and not to be able to see in the dark. That's what I have my lantern for, after all. Metal knight fell into a pit filled with giant bugs, but we handled it. Then, we finally reached the end of the tunnel and came to another door. The floor was paved again. Behind the door was a chamber filled with light. After a moment of blindness I saw a long dead man lying on the floor, in shining silver armor adorned by the crest of a god. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>(Krevath? Kalvith? Something with K and about death and goodness or something. Or was it the family name that started with K? Urgh, this is embarrassing, I'll have to find a teacher at some point and learn more about religion. And history. And the arcane. And more languages. Okay, I checked again, the god is called Kelemvor and the family the dead guy was from is called Silvermane. He had a letter from his father on him. Awkward and sad. I should get that information to him somehow. But I'm digressing.)</i>
</p><p>
  <i>So, there was a chamber with a dead guy and a sword that emitted light. Suspicious. We didn't go in, but the genasi used mage hand to grab the sword. I though that might trigger something, and it did. Suddenly, there was a mass of shadow and teeth that erupted out of the darkness beyond the light and attacked. It was madness! Metal knight and dragonborn ran in, because they are frontliners. Wizard genasi for some reason didn't take cover immediately. As I said, smart but dumb. I kept hiding in the hallway and shooting it with arrows, and every time I looked into the chamber again the others looked worse for wear. I only saw parts of the fight, but it was insane what holy dragonborn did against the shadow thing! My arrows seemed to mostly pass through it, but I think they did at least a little damage. Finally the thing went down, the shadow dispersing into nothingness. We took a moment to tend to our wounds. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>Since all other exits to this camber were collapsed we took the dead guy and went back to the first crossroad. I tried really hard not to think about the missing people we had still not found and what this detour might have cost them. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>We came to another crossroad, with a big door in the middle path that we couldn't open. So we went left, found a place with bug-thingies on a pile of rubble that were eating the metal. I saw a really shiny ring in the pile of rust, so I knew I needed to have it. The bug-thingies didn't take to kindly to me taking it, though. We wouldn't have killed them if they hadn't attacked us. But the ring I found can make a magical arrow once a day, which is super cool and so worth it. There was another chamber beyond that one, with a sealed door and some inscriptions. I couldn't read it, so I copied everything down. The seal was magical and it didn't look like this was the way forward. More wasted time. Well, not wasted, but you know what I mean. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>Because we still couldn't figure out how to open the central door we went right this time. And finally we came across signs of prisoners. Just, not the way I had hoped. Yeah, there were body parts in barrels with salt. Apparently there had been a party of Drow here. As we learned later, they had come here a week ago to investigate the ruins here. This seems important, but also above my abilities.<br/>
While in the chamber with the body parts we heard singing from a corridor further inside the ruins. I thought that might be dangerous, so I convinced everyone to stuff their ears. Yes, I was scared we might find something dangerous that was singing. We did, but thankfully that danger was on our side. Beyond that corridor was where they were keeping their prisoners. One of them was a drow who was singing, chained up to the wall. The other two were the mother and father of that family I told you about, also chained up to the wall. They were unconscious. There were also several kao-toa staring at the singing drow, hypnotized, charmed by his singing.<br/>
We got in position, and then we attacked the kao-toa. It wasn't easy, but we took all of them out and freed the prisoners. The drow told us the stuff about his party I wrote earlier. He also was really done with drow society and decided to stay with the crew that picked us up later.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Dragonborn healed the parents a bit, and they told us that the koa-toa had taken their son somewhere else. Together with Drow we went to the central door and opened it with a thing we took off the body of one of the koa-toa, a black stone circle. In the big hall beyond the door were a lot of kao-toa, and a big one with shaman looking clothes standing over an altar at the far end. The missing kid was tied to the altar. They were in the middle of some ritual. We fought our way through the kao-toa in the hall. I kept screaming at the others to take out the shaman, to make sure to interrupt the ritual. The way I fight I'm supposed to stay in the back, shooting arrows. But I can run really fast if I have to, I can take an enemy on up close if I have to. I might not last as long as others, because I'm not as tough. But my rapier is even deadlier than my arrows. You made sure of that, Dad. I'm thankful to your for that. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>The shaman cut the child's throat. Magic was swelling up around him. I knew, once the child was dead, the ritual would be complete and something really really bad would happen. And the child would be dead. I can't heal anyone. I don't have the magic for that. But I could pave the way for the one person in the party who did. So I ran up to the shaman and engaged him. Dragonborn followed me, took the opening I created and healed the child just enough to keep it alive. I think dragonborn didn't have anymore healing left, after everything we'd been doing all day. Shaman attacked, but not me, but those behind me. I tired so hard to kill shaman. I succeeded. I stabbed him and pinned his dead body to the floor with my rapier. When I turned around, the party had taken out the other koa-toa and dragonborn had protected the child. The child was alive. Dragonborn was not. Thankfully the child was still unconscious and didn't see all of this happening. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>We left, taking dragonborn and the body of the other holy knight with us. It seems like these ruins are the bane of holy knights. We gave them both a fiery burial at the beach. The family was reunited and I made sure to know who they are and where I could find them, should I ever been in their area and need a favor. I slept for a long time once all that was done. When I woke up again a ship was on the horizon and not that much later we were being picked up. Now I'm in the cargo area, in a corner that is pretty quiet, if dark. But I have my trusted lantern. The captain and first mate didn't seem to notice anything suspicious about me. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>We never found elven lady. She seemed powerful and mysterious. I wonder. Did she cause the sudden storm that sunk the ship? It seemed like a supernatural storm. Like something that showed up on purpose. Was she on the island as well and up to nefarious things?But why sink the ship if you want to go somewhere? No, that seems overkill. The most likely outcome is that she drowned, like all the others. Aside from whatever was up with her, something supernatural caused that storm and something is on that island, in those ruins, beyond that sealed door. The question is, should that mystery be lifted? Or should I stay really far away from that? Right now I have no choice on the matter, sailing further away from the cursed island with every passing moment. Whether or not I will ever come back with more experience and resources will be a decision for the future.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>I told dragonborn to heal the child and protect it at all costs. He did. It was still his decision to do that. But I am also responsible for his death. How do you deal with this, Dad? I know that, had the child died and the ritual been completed, something truly horrific would have happened. How I know that I don't understand. Maybe it's the instincts years of training with you have honed. Maybe it's my cursed blood. But I know that, had the child died, we all would have died. Maybe dragonborn man knew that, too.<br/>
This is the life of an adventurer, isn't it? The thrill of battle and triumph, the horrors of death and disaster, all mixed up. I wonder where this life will take me.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Bye, </i>
</p><p>
  <i>Rose </i>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Letters 5-7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The ship gets attacked, Rose looses and gains some companions.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Letter #5</strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Leander,</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>It's another boat situation. Genasi and metal knight became much closer, to each other. One would think that going through such an adventure together and tragically losing a companion would make them include me in their group. But no such luck. Drow bard has joined the crew as a ship musician. He has been helping me with studying Elven, but has also been keeping me at a distance. He seems strangely intimidated by me. The crew is a mixed bunch, all sorts of people and an impressive captain lady. The cook is particularly strange and gives everyone an orange every day. We're in the middle of the ocean and those oranges are really fresh every day and quench all my hunger and thirst. I'm not going to ask him directly, because he seems to be keeping this a secret, but I think he might be a druid. Do you think a druid can sense what is wrong with me? I don't think they can, since the paladin didn't seem to be able to. Then again, paladins are all about holy magic and druids about natural magic. He might be able to tell that I'm unnatural. He's also really perceptive. I'll need to keep my guard up around him. And just because dragonborn paladin wasn't able to sense my demonic blood, that doesn't mean other paladins won't be able to. There are all kinds of people out there, and I have to be even more careful the stronger those people are. Thinking about it, the same is true for clerics. I'll have to be careful around them as well and watch how they react to my presence. I just wish I could read people better and understand them more. But I guess I'm just inherently less of a person than others. Of course it is more difficult for me to relate to them and read them. Isn't it a cruel twist of fate how easy it is for me to deceit and persuade people, but how hard it is to have insight into their emotions?<br/>
Look at me, bemoaning my ineptitude and blaming them on my blood, instead of working on them and remembering that you, Leander, were just as bad at reading people and a much better lair than me. Maybe I am like this because you raised me to be this way. Oh father, I really don't know anymore. I used to be so proud of being your daughter. But suddenly I don't know anymore. Can I be proud of my skills? Are they reprehensible? Are they even skills I learned or just something gained by having cursed blood? Am I even your daughter? Fuck that! I am your daughter! Because you raised me and taught me your craft. Because you call me daughter.<br/>
That doesn't mean I'm not still mad at you.</em>

</p>
<p>
  <em>Bye,</em>
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p><em>Rose</em> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>Letter #6</strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Well, I had been thinking about telling you metal knight's and genai's names. But fuck that I guess. It's no longer important. Right, I forgot to say hi first. Hi. I hate this. This isn't making any sense, is it? I know, I know. I'm sorry. Let me tell you what happened.<br/>
Pirates. We were just minding our own business, just sailing along, when suddenly this other ship shows up and starts attacking us. They boarded us and everyone started fighting. It was such a mess! The pirate captain was this tall white haired woman who was wielding a big sword that did frost damage. I didn't feel it myself, but I saw its effect in use. While there was mad fighting on deck, I decided to play it smart and hid in the corridor leading below deck, just ducking out every few seconds to shoot someone. In consequence, I only saw snapshots of the battle every few seconds and had to find a new target really quickly every time I left cover. But that is what I'm trained for, so of course I managed that. Metal knight was fighting the pirate captain head on. Suddenly they moved right up to the doorway I always ducked out of. I was still thinking that this complicated my strategy, when pirate captain rammed her sword into metal knight, pierced his body to the floor and he stopped moving. She looked up in triumph and shouted: “Your champion has fallen! No one will stand against me now!”<br/>
She was so sure that she had won. That was the moment when I lost it again. When I knew I could no longer hide. When I realized that I had hidden for too long, that I could have saved metal knight if I had engaged pirate captain in melee earlier. I dropped my bow and took up my rapier. Her back was turned to me. She was already hurt, metal knight had damaged her a lot. I could see where I had to stab her to finish what he had started. With quiet steps I walked up to her and stabbed her in her back. It was so easy, in that moment, to kill her.<br/>
“You forgot about me, bitch”, I told her as she died.<br/>
I saw the light vanish from her eyes and pulled my rapier from her body. She fell limply to the floor, next to metal knight.<br/>
But the battle wasn't over yet.<br/>
The cook who is likely a druid was locked into combat with some pirate crew members at the other end of the ship. Genasi wizard was firing at the pirate ship, and I could hear fighting somewhere on the main deck as well. I was just thinking of running back in to grab my bow again, when the head of the pirate captain split open and a brain with feet came out of it. I screamed. It attacked me, biting me and I felt the strangest sensation, as if some alien power was reaching for my mind. But I resisted. I stabbed the abomination once, but it was still alive. Then, a mote of fire engulfed it and it stopped moving. I looked up to see genasi wizard staring at me. Then I realized she was staring at metal knight, who was lying dead at my feet. She screamed and started running towards me. But she never made it. An arrow pierced her neck and she fell, mid run, tumbling towards me still. I ran to her, stopped her fall and turned her face towards me. She was already dead. She saved me moments ago and now she was dead.<br/>
I looked up again. Druid cook hit one of the pirates with his staff and split open his head. He looked utterly terrified of himself, starring at his blood covered staff. I almost expected to see another arrow come flying and kill him as well. But only the wind was rushing past us. The pirate ship had sailed out of range. Behind me, the sounds of battle died down. I got up and turned around. The captain was coming down from the upper deck, injured but alive. She looked over the deck, took in all the living and fallen people. She didn't say anything. What are you supposed to say in a moment like this?<br/>
Druid was the first one who broke the silence.<br/>
“There's someone climbing up the ship”, he said.<br/>
Everyone was immediately alarmed. I ran to get my bow and the captain ran to the side of the ship druid was pointing at. When I came back out, people were leaning over the railing, but they seemed more confused than hostile. I kept my distance, ready to hide and strike from the shadows, should the need arise. Ultimately, it wasn't necessary, this time. Because on board climbed a tortle carrying a human child. I just – I'll tell you more about them another day. I was just done that day. And I've been writing this forever, so, till next time.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Bye,</em>
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p><em>Rose</em> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>Letter #7</strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Leander,<br/>
The child is insane. The tortle is a blessing. I don't understand what is going on there. They said they met on the pirate ship, or on the ocean. I wasn't listening when the captain questioned them. I know, I should have. I tried questioning the child later, because he looks like he's twelve and ran away from a noble home. But getting a straight answer from him is impossible. He says he's the herald of the one and true god, that he has awesome magic abilities and we puny mortals should be in awe of him. The tortle just stands with him and indulges his insanity. Why do I keep talking to them?!<br/>
Because they are the strangest and most interesting people on the ship. Why am I like this? Oh, right, I'm your daughter. Yes, I'm blaming you for this, father.<br/>
We'll be reaching Delthuntle soon. I'll be getting off this ship and start earning some money by adventuring. I know, I shouldn't do that alone, I'll need teammates. It looks like these two don't really know what to do once they reach the city, so hopefully we'll team up. The child says he can do amazing magic, and who am I to deny him. I feel a bit irresponsible taking him adventuring, but I would feel even more irresponsible leaving him behind. The way he talks to people and preaches his god, he will get himself killed or mugged or kidnapped within a day if left alone. Tortle seems to think the same, I think that's why they're sticking around.<br/>
And I think the druid also has no real plans on where to go next. We teamed up against those pirates, maybe we'll team up again?<br/>
If they are still around after the first combat and we're all still talking, I'll tell you their names.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Bye,</em>
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>
  <em>Rose</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
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